Da Beat Goes On: Preserving Bunny Matthews’ Legacy
By Jann Darsie
New Orleanians know Bunny Matthews as the talented and prolific cartoonist who gave us Vic and Nat’ly Broussard as well as other iconic and memorable characters.
His work appeared in alternative weeklies and The Times-Picayune, in art galleries and community spaces, and on bread trucks and refrigerator magnets. To quote the Bunny Matthews Archive website: “He made art not for institutions, but for the people who lived the culture he depicted.”
That changed on September 19, 2026, when the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC) opened a grand exhibition featuring Matthews work.
Thanks to his son Jude Matthews, his life’s work will live on in perpetuity. With the help of the Ella Project, he has created the Bunny Matthews Archive. According its website, this comprises a “growing collection preserving every line, word, and laugh — the creative output of Bunny Matthews, catalogued artifact by artifact for generations to come.”
Born Will Bunn Matthews III in 1951, from the very beginning he was known as “Bunny.” Bunny Matthews graduated from East Jefferson High School in Metairie and attended University of New Orleans until his creative pursuits lured him away from college.
Matthews freelanced as both a cartoonist and a music journalist for local alternative publications, including the now-defunct Figaro. His writing appeared in the first issue of OffBeat in 1988 and he served as the music magazine’s editor from 1998 until 2005.
A few years before his death in 2021, Bunny Matthews’ son Jude moved his widowed father in with his family and to help care for him during a long battle with cancer. It was then that the younger Matthews decided it was time to digitize all his father’s work; paper degrades, and he wanted to share it with a wider world.
Matthews recalls that his father was somewhat tech-averse. “He had a scanner, but I’m not sure he ever used it,” Matthews said. “I credit my friends Jonah Langenbeck of Between Projects and Stephen G. Rhodes with helping me jumpstart this and creating the website. I started digitizing in 2019 or 2020.”
The archive is an ongoing process. Matthews estimates he has only digitized about 10% of the work. This includes not only his father’s famous cartoons but cards, calendars, advertisements and paintings.
Jude Matthews. Photo by Carol Grevemberg
Matthews first learned about the Ella Project through Jan Ramsey at OffBeat. “I happened to be talking to her about creating a nonprofit and I mentioned that I needed legal advice,” Matthews said. “Immediately, she told me I should contact the Ella Project.”
During his lifetime, Bunny Matthews self-published three books that were so popular they have gone into posthumous reprints. The first was F’Sure! Actual Dialogue Heard on the Streets of New Orleans. Then he published Vic and Nat’ly, featuring Matthews’ working-class couple who run a 9th Ward bar and po-boy shop and embody the city’s “Yat” culture. By popular demand, it was followed by Vic and Nat’ly II.
After his father’s death, Jude Matthews went back to college and enrolled in a class on nonprofits for his last semester. He realized he would need to know about nonprofit organizations in order to preserve his father’s legacy. For his final project in the nonprofit course, Matthews created a nonprofit organization to honor his father’s work.
Thus the Bunny Matthews Archive was created. The Ella Project helped Matthews with the legal work needed to form the nonprofit, including establishing a 501(c)(3) and navigating the state and federal processes.
“The Ella Project guided me through the creation of legally creating a 501(c)(3), I’m sure that I would have been extremely confused without their help.”
The Historic New Orleans Collection had purchased some of Bunny Matthews’ original artwork in 2021. But when the HNOC approached Matthews about an exhibition and a book featuring his late father’s work, Matthews again turned to the Ella Project for legal assistance.
Needing a contract with the HNOC for this exhibition, Matthews relied on the legal expertise of the Ella Project. The pro bono lawyers helped him review and negotiate the contract.
“The Ella Project is such a valuable asset to New Orleans, the work that they do provides the artistic community a much-needed resource.”
The show, Bunny Matthews: His Life, Art and Obsessions, is accompanied by HNOC’s eponymous book by Alison Fensterstock and Michael Tisserand. The September 19 opening also featured “Bunny Day,” a daylong celebration with discussions and, of course, a costume contest.
The free exhibition runs through May 9, 2027; details and hours can be found at the HNOC website.
The Arthur Roger Gallery is also having an exhibition opening October 3, 2026. That exhibit will close on November 14.
The Bunny Matthews Archive is a living, ever-changing entity. You can see the latest information and images on bunnymatthews.com. And follow on Facebook and Instagram.
